Kick in the Gut

Source: KU Sports

On Saturday, KU played Oklahoma the closest it had played them since Todd Reesing, Jake Sharp, Kerry Meier, Dezmon Briscoe, Joe Mortensen, Mike Rivera, James Holt, and Darrell Stuckey did in 2008. The Hawks fell to the Sooners in Norman on that October day, 45-31, but put up a noble fight against a Sam Bradford led squad. Today was much of the same. KU jumped out early to a 13-0 lead, trailed by only 5 at halftime, 18-13, and trimmed the game to 25-19 Sooners in the fourth quarter, before it all unraveled in the final minutes. As well as Kansas played, this game felt like nothing more than another kick in the gut, and that feeling was only heightened because of how well Kansas played.

It's incredibly frustrating that for the better part of a quarter and a half, Kansas absolutely, positively dominated this football game. Jake Heaps was doing his best Alex Smith impression, playing game manager and making throws when needed, the offensive line played the best we have seen it play all year by a long shot, and the defense was swarming to the ball and making plays.

Heaps hit Mundine in the endzone on a 3rd and goal play on KU's first drive, after James Sims gouged the OU defense left, right, and up the middle. The offensive line just eviscerated the front seven.

KU had a nice second drive, but opted to punt the ball, and pinned OU deep. The Sooners turned the ball over shortly after on a Keith Ford fumble, stripped by Keon Stowers and recovered by JaCorey Shepeherd, and Kansas took over and executed a 4 play 68 yard drive in just over 2 minutes. The drive started with a 38 yard Darrian Miller run up the middle, was aided by a questionable pass interference call in the end-zone, and capped off by an 11 yard James Sims touchdown on the first play of the second quarter. Matthew Wyman hit the left upright on the extra point, but still, Kansas held a 13-0 lead over the Sooners. It was the first lead that KU had over OU since 2001.

KU forced another punt, but was pinned back on its own 3. Unlike it had at any point in the year, KU continued its success on the ground with a 18 yards of Darrian Miller rushing. It gave the Hawks much more breathing room to punt the ball away successfully, and they did that, although it was far from Trevor Pardula's best, just 38 yards.

This was the drive that killed the Kansas momentum. It was a huge turning point in the game. On a 3rd and 9 play from Oklahoma 46 with a little more than 8 minutes left in the first half, Blake Bell airmailed a pass deep downfield that was intercepted by Dexter McDonald, and returned all the way to the Oklahoma 40.